Harrier colours?

Here is a website that can help just type 'harrier" in the search engine and it'll get several articles that might help. Also I seen a wings discovery channel show on the Falkland conflict under the Wings of England title. It showed the crews brush painting the undersides of their Harriers black along with overpainting the roundels.

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/search.htm

here is a good build up site for an US version that might help too.
http://members.tripod.com/scottsmodels/av-8a_harrier.htm

According to "At War in the Falklands", a special edition magazine issued by "AirCombat" in 1983, the Royal Navy FRS.Mk1 Sea Harriers used in the Falklands campaign were painted allover Barley Grey. The RAF GR.3 Harriers retained their Dark Green/Dark Grey/Light Grey scheme.

Sorry, I can't give you any info for the interior, but would imagine that both the Royal Navy and RAF Harriers had the same interior colors. I would go with whatever the kit instructions say.

Pete

Thanks very much for the replies. The kit I have is an old 1982/83 MPC kit (former Airfix?) and the painting instructions are very vague (the pilot's seat, for example, says simply "olive drab"). I found a book on the Harrier from Squadron Mail Order that I sent for--hopefully that will have some information. Charles, I will check out those websites. I tried a search for "Harrier" and didn't come up with those. Pete, do you know the federal color numbers for those paints? I never heard of "Barley Grey!" Does Model Master (Testor) make anything close?

This is the definitive site for Harrier info:

http://harrier.hyperlinx.cz/

On there is all the info you need, including a list of all the different paint schemes, by tail number, carried during the Falklands war. As well as a complete bibliography of available references.

Essentailly though, most wore an all over scheme of Gloss Extra Dark Sea grey (humbrol 123 or Gunze Sangyo H333). This was the colour worn on the top surface pre war, and all that happened on the way south was that the white on the underside was over painted. Most of the markings were also painted over, and the white in the roundels was filled in with dark blue.

Only eight aircraft, ( those that arrived aboard the Atlantic Convayor on the 18th of May) were painted in the Barley grey (GS H334) lower and Meduim Sea Grey (GS H335)upper scheme , this is a much lighter grey colour. These had black codes and pale blue/pale red roundels. After the war, all aircraft were repainted in Dark Sea Grey.

As for internal colours, Medium Sea grey for the cockpit and seat, front face of Seat Headbox should be black, top of the head box, seat cushion and backpad olive green, straps sandy brown.

Check out the above website for any other questions, and check out
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/helpdesk.asp

For colour matching to what ever brands of paint you can get.



Hope this helps

According to SAM Aug 02
XZ492/23 ZA193/93 XZ457/14 (800 NAS HMS HERMES) all BS381C:640 Extra dark sea grey all over with roundels extending the blue into the red centre spot ( covering the white).they didnt carry unit markings.

XZ455/000 XZ498/005 (801NAS HMS INCINCIBLE) as above

ZA175/125 (899NAS INVINCIBLE?) AS ABOVE

The Hermes aircraft were brush painted underneath, Incincibles were stripped and resprayed.

All of 809NAS (HERMES) aircraft were sprayed BS381C:637 medium sea grey with BS4800:18B.21 BARLEY GREY underside wing and tailplanes, roundels pale blue and pink, codes in black or pale blue, all SHARs had black radomes and only ZA177/77 carried Sqn crest in blue/pink as well as ROYAL NAVY titles in blue.
ZA194/251 had black RN titles and code with pale blue phoenix.
XZ499/99 had a rudder replaced from stock in the darker grey.
Other aircraft had no Sqn/RN markings just serials and roundels

All of the important harriers (1 SQN RAF GR3's- my old unit) were standard grey/green wraparound tactical scheme with 1F crest on the fwd fuselage and red codes on the tail.

Scale Aircraft Modeling is an English mag and when they research a subject they go all the way !

Great information. Thanks to all of you for taking the time. This should make it a whole lot easier. I'll take a close look at that Harrier site.

I also took a closer look at the decal sheet provided in the kit. There is a pilot's name evident: "Flt Lt. T. Hammond"--a real person? The markings are for XV786. The red/blue tail flash has "CV" above it in red. There are some (apparently) unit markings for the nose: a black "explosion" with the number red 4, split by a lightning bolt. This is flanked on both sides by a red/blud rectangle also split by a lightning bolt. Are these real or imaginary markings?
Sorry to be a bother, but I am really out of my depth with modern aircraft. I haven't built anything but WWII in more than twenty years. And I really appreciate the answers provided so far.

oggy4624, 809 sqn SHARs were split between hermes and Invincible, four each, they did not all go to Hermes.

Checkmateking, if you got to http://harrier.hyperlinx.cz/ you can look up the serial number and check out what the markings that were carried during the falklands.

Thanks very much. I have checked the site, and those specific codes are not listed as actually participating, but they seem to be from 4 Sq RAF--which, along with 3 Sq apparently supplied some Harriers to 1 Sq. for Operation Corporate.
It appears the colours were RAF Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey Upper Surfaces. One thing still is unclear to me: the lower surfaces. The kit says these should be "light gray." The Harrier site does not mention this for the RAF GR.3, but says they were in the standard RAF "overall scheme." Does this mean that the undersurfaces were also Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey in a camouflage pattern?

All photos that I have seen of the 1F harriers taking part in Op Corporate were in the wrap around scheme.
As far as I know, the 2 RAFG Sqns and the OCU jets were also the same at that time.